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Aldmeris (Language)
Aldmeris is the language spoken by the Aldmer and is the root of all elven languages in Tamriel, as well as the common tongue spoken by most of the continent during the Merethic and First Eras. It is derived from Ehlnofex, the language of the Ehlnofey and Et'Ada. History The language of the Aldmer is one of Tamriel's oldest languages. It evolved from the ancient language of the Ehlnofey, Ehlnofex, by the Middle Merethic Era. It is structurally similar to Ehlnofex, but more consistent in grammatical syntax and phonetic meaning. Most other elven languages evolved from Aldmeris, including: Ayleidoon, Bosmeris, Chimeris, Dwemeris, Falmeris, Orcish and Pyandonean. Ehlnofex didn't use a written language, the Aldmer developed their own written alphabet. The same alphabet was used for all the other elven languages. The human languages adopted a similar alphabet, as was the case with Atmoramal copying the structure of the Falmeris alphabet ( ). Aldmeris is still used in the 1st Era by the Aldmer, but it has slowly evolved itself over the millenium. Merethic Era Aldmeris is known as Old Aldmeris, while 1st Era Aldmeris is known as Modern Aldmeris or Elvish. The biggest differences are grammatical and phonetic changes that distance it from Ehlnofex and more closely to the other modern elven languages. Pronunciation The Aldmer alphabet consisted of the following lettersː a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Consonants Grammar Articles Neither definite article nor indefinite article exist in Aldmeris in any form. Nouns and adjectives The Aldmeris noun and adjective declines in six classes. As in Tamrielic, the only declensions are the nominative and genitive, but both have singular and plural forms. The noun are divided into the declesion classes simply by the final sound in singular. *Example: The word buroth (servant) is an O-ending noun, and the word aldmer is a consonantal ending noun. Buroth aldmeru means '(the) servant of an aldmer and bura aldmere means '(the) servants of aldmeri' The declension of adjectives is similar, but lacks the genitive form, just like in Tamrielic. The greatest difference to Tamrielic is that the Aldmeris adjective had plural form. So, if the word it describes is in plural, so is the adjective. Possessive Aldmeris completely lacks possessive, meaning that is has no equivalent of the Tamrielic "have" verb. You can't ask "do you have any money?" Aldmeris phrases those kind of questions in a different way, making some speech patters very different from typical real-world Western patterns. Some examples: *"Do you have any money?" = "Is there any money in your pockets?" *"He has a terrible disease" = "He is sick with a terrible disease" Pronouns and demonstratives *There is no pronoun for "he" or "she"; instead of them, a noun is always used. For example, "he killed the bear" = "Ocato killed the bear / the man killed the bear." *The relative pronoun man is also used as a phrase meaning "which was/who was". For example: aldmer man lindai the aldmer who was rich. Verb Aldmeris verbs have three tenses; the present, the future and the past. Present tense The present tense of course tells what happens in the now and is formed by adding a personal ending to the verb. The endings are: *Me = -nye *You (sg.) = -t *He/she = (no ending) *We = -ne *You (pl.) = -ye *They = (no ending) If the verb ends in a consonant, an ''-a-'' is added before the personal ending. So, for example using the verb hecta- "to receive": hectanye, I receive; hectat, you receive; hecta, he receives; and using tarn- to pass: tarnane, we pass. Past tense The past tense tells what happened or has happened. In verbs ending with a vowel, an -i- is fixed just before the last vowel, and then followed by the regular personal ending. In verbs ending with a consonant, an ending -e is added, followed by the regular personal ending. Example: *hecta- to receive: hectia, he received; hectiaye, they received. *tarn- to pass: tarne he passed; tarnet, you passed. Future tense The future tense tells what will happen in the future. It is formed by adding an ending -va followed by the regular personal ending. For example: hectavanye, I will receive. Commands There are two forms of commands. The first is the regular imperative, used to tell somebody to do something. It is formed with the ending -oy. An example using the verb heca- to go away, to leave; hecoy! leave!. The second is a polite form, used to ask somebody to do something. It is formed with the ending -e. An example using the verb heca- to go away, to leave; Hece, Please leave, if you will. Other verb forms An equivalent of the Tamrielic -ing ending is -en, but is used only as an adjective. For example, you can use it to say "A running man" but not "A man is running". An equivalent of the Tamrielic -ed ending is -ti (-ati if the verb ends in a consonant) and is used in a similar way, although verb "to be" is not used. For example: aldmer amati, an aldmer was asked. Negative sentence A negative sentence is formed by adding a prefix aba- to a verb, or ab- if the verb starts with a vowel. Otherwise the verb works as normal. For example: aldmer abahectava, an aldmer will not receive. Interrogatives Positions Grammatically they work in the same way; the positional word is always placed before the noun. Conjunctions Adverbs Numerals Ordinals follow the word they describe but are not declined, unlike adjectives. Word order A common sentence has the following word order: Subject + Verb + Object. An adjective always follows the word it describes; mirie rielle, girl beautiful = beautiful girl The owner always follows the owned; daen aldmeru, the sword aldmer's = the aldmer's sword In question sentences the basic word order is: Interrogative + Verb + Subject + Object + Preposition. Some examples: *''Man hectia gandra?, Who received the gift? *''Feyma ni daen hindet?, Where you the sword found? = Where did you find the sword? Dictionary Derivative endings These endings are used to derive new words from existing ones. Text Sample The beginning of the Aldmeri tale, "Father of the Niben." Pasquiniel hacya veravant, am Illio pastur, tarnie am Runnebal erinne; ae nata man Niben am Topal pastur, tarnie am Runnebal pinorinne; norise Mantie Miscurin, pesne vinne tendoben yaenume, avanas aushantaye am riase. Ley Niben aushantia va Aldatelin, fannati am lindai, dennicai, hebase ae goribeta, nagrai ae anyai. Ey! Ehlnofey Ald Topal aboie abahindi, rie rerum de renvai tarni ry aellis raume. Pasquiniel the second ship, with Illio steering, go by southwards Waystone; and third that was Niben with Topal steering, go by northeastwards Waystone; orders of the Crystal Tower, sail forth for eighty moons, then return with words. Only Nibern returned to Firsthold, laded with gold, spice, fur and strange creatures, dead and live. Alas! Old Ehlnofey Topal never found, he told the tales of the lands he passed to wonderment of all. Source *Entirely based on Hrafnir's languages on the Imperial Library. Category:Merethic Canon Category:Languages